30 (offroad, mostly) miles
A lovely clear, windless night last night. Good job really, cos I had a ride planned. Quite a straightforward one this; an out-and-back following the bridleway towards Rochdale, along the road for a few miles then up Rooley Moor Road onto the moors. Once at the summit, turn around and ride back. Near the top I could see the new wind farm and once I’d stopped I could see several lights, torches and car headlights, all appearing on the moor. Presumably security and night-watchmen wondering who the hell is on RMR at 11pm. I decided to send Deb a text as it was getting late, then my mobile battery went. Doh. Oh well, hopefully she won’t try to ring me (and get really panicky) and hopefully I won’t crash on the way back down…..
Got back really late and downed a pint of chocolate milk. I’ve got to get back into midweek long rides – I’m not leaving the house these days until the girls are in bed and that means I’ve only been riding for 2 hours at the most…and I need the long rides. I think I’m really going to feel battered after the Gran Canaria enduro. I’ve not ridden 100k since last summer and whilst I’ve stayed on top of the fitness, a ride like that is probably going to come as a bit of a shock.
Hit The North entries are coming in and we’ve got a fairly large soloist category developing. There are a couple of guys who are entered who will be fighting over the win I reckon. We’ve also been approached by The North Face who I was talking to yesterday about sponsorship. They’re going to give us a load of prizes such as clothing, vouchers for the Manchester Ice Climbing Wall and hydration packs. In return they get some publicity and get to hang banners around the course. One thing that this race has got is an abundance of great sponsors.
News items have started to appear on cycling websites and the race is included on a number of independent race calendars. The traffic on the HTN website increased tenfold a couple of days ago (compared to the previous day), so at the moment we’re well pleased and optimistic that we’ll sell out, have a great time and donate loads.
Jase 